Icelandic visitor fined after altercation with police at MIA

A magistrate has warned a 22-year-old visitor from Iceland to steer clear of alcohol after the man was fined and handed a suspended sentence for drunkenly insulting and trying to attack a policeman at the airport last night.

Viktor Arnarsson appeared before magistrate Ian Farrugia this afternoon, charged with breaching the peace and public drunkenness, as well as with disobeying police orders and insulting a police constable during the course of his duties.

Prosecuting inspector Silvio Magro told the court that Arnarsson had been stopped by airport security and had demanded to know why. The police were eventually called and the matter resolved. An officer told him that he was free to go, but by that stage, he had missed his flight.

It is believed that the wiry youth, who suffers from an undisclosed physical disability, had lost his temper and became abusive at that point.

The accused has Maltese parents and spends up to five months a year on the island.

Lawyer Leontine Calleja, appearing as legal aid to the accused, objected to the fact that Arnarsson was charged with “vilification, threats or bodily harm against public officers,” which has a minimum fine of €800. Calleja pointed out that the accused, who appeared in court with a gauze dressing on his cheek, had evidently been the victim of violence and that he should have been made to answer to a lesser charge. "I feel the book is being thrown at the accused, in the circumstances," said the lawyer.

The youth chose to plead guilty – allegedly in order to avoid lengthy proceedings in Malta.

Magistrate Farrugia handed Arnarsson a one=month prison sentence, suspended for a year, together with an €800 fine, payable in monthly installments from the man’s disability pension. “Pay the instalments,” said the magistrate “because if you think you can get away with not doing so, you are very much mistaken.”